Here is what I am reading today:
“When newborn female rats are given a substance mimicking cannabis, their brains become more masculine – as does their behaviour. Margaret McCarthy from the University of Maryland in Baltimore and colleagues found that newborn female rats usually make more new cells than males in a part of their brain called the amygdala, an area that governs social and emotional behaviour.”
” Saying goodbye to summer can be difficult for everybody. In some people the onset of winter triggers Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, a mood disorder in which sufferers experience symptoms of depression. Happily, a special kind of gerbil exhibits remarkably similar reactions to SAD treatments as humans, opening a promising new channel for study and treatment of the common complaint.”
” Psychologists at the University of Toronto have shown that the nature of a social interaction has the ability to influence an individual’s sensitivity to physical pain. The discovery could have significant clinical implications for doctor-patient relationships and the general well-being of an individual on a daily basis.”
3 Comments
natzafis · November 13, 2010 at 12:08 pm
The article concerning social interaction and the perception of pain was extremely interesting. When it first discusses the study conducted and the fact that individuals who experienced the indifferent social interaction had LESS sensitivity to pain, I was surprised but initially assumed this was a good thing. While it makes sense that social threats result in an increase of the fight-or-flight stress response and acts as a pain analgesic, I never thought about the health impacts that even slightly unpleasant social interactions would have on an individual daily. This just reinforces how truly significant positive social interactions and social connectivity is, not only to an individual’s self-esteem and social needs, but to a person’s overall health.
rpoppin · November 15, 2010 at 11:54 am
fat rats are SAD like us
I’d never realized that for all the research we do on mice as a comparative model for humans, they’re nocturnal! Of course they’d react differently to different exposure times of light; they’re completely different in that respect. Sometimes I’d like to know how these researchers find these unique animals to study. Who’s ever heard of the fat sand rat and who decided to study them? It’s interesting how a gerbil so closely resembles our physiology and even psychology, as we consider ourselves much more complex and “higher” than a common “rat.” As for SAD, well I must be one of the few people who like the shorter days of winter.
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